Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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BLUEGOLDONLINE.COM APRIL 2024 11 UNDER THE DOME NBC Makes Broadcast Team Changes For Notre Dame Football Longtime NBC broadcaster Dan Hicks will be back at Notre Dame Stadium soon. Per a report from Andrew Marchand of The Athletic Feb. 22, Hicks is replacing Jac Collinsworth as the play-by-play voice of Fighting Irish football games on NBC starting in 2024. Hicks, a graduate of the University of Arizona's journalism school, has been with NBC since 1992. Only a sliver of that time has been spent calling Notre Dame games. He was the Irish's play-by-play voice on NBC a decade ago but has largely spent his time with the company covering golf and the Olympics. Hicks has been NBC Sport's lead play-by-play host for the PGA Tour since 2000. He's a veteran of 11 Olympic broadcasts. When you watch back some of your favorite Olympic highlights of the last few de- cades, odds are Hicks was on the call. When Michael Phelps and his Team USA teammates pulled off an improbable 4×100 freestyle relay win for a gold medal at the 2008 games in Beijing, Hicks had a memorable call of, "Here comes Lezak! Unbeliev- able at the end! He's done it!" And if you're a golf fan, who can forget when Tiger Woods made birdie on the 72nd hole of the 2008 U.S. Open at Torrey Pines? Hicks' call when the 14-foot birdie putt went down was, "Expect anything different?!" Hicks brings a natural enthusiasm to the booth. Collinsworth, meanwhile, was the play-by-play man alongside former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett for the last two seasons. Garrett will remain in the booth with Hicks, according to The Athletic's report. Collinsworth, a Notre Dame graduate and the son of NBC Sunday Night Football color analyst Cris Collinsworth, was a studio host and sideline reporter for Notre Dame on NBC starting in 2020. His future endeavors were not included in Marchand's article. Marchand did report that Noah Eagle and Todd Blackledge will remain NBC's No. 1 broadcast team outside of Notre Dame games. Notre Dame's home slate begins with a game against Northern Illinois Sept. 7. The Irish also have home games against Miami (Ohio), Louisville, Stanford, Florida State and Virginia. The Shamrock Series game against Army at Yankee Stadium Nov. 23 will also be televised by NBC. — Tyler Horka Notre Dame Finalizes 2024 Football Schedule After months of speculation, Notre Dame finally revealed the 12th game on its 2024 schedule. The Irish will face Army West Point in a Shamrock Series game Nov. 23 at Yankee Stadium in New York, the schools announced Feb. 14. The game will be broadcast on NBC and streamed on Peacock. Notre Dame's matchup with Army will celebrate the 100th anniversary of its Four Horsemen backfield that included Jim Crowley, Elmer Layden, Don Miller and Harry Stuhldreher. On Oct. 18, 1924, Grantland Rice gave the quartet that famous nickname in the New York Herald Tribune. This will be the third Shamrock Series game to be played at Yankee Sta- dium, following Notre Dame wins over Army in 2010 and Syracuse in 2018. Previous Shamrock Series host cities have included Landover, Md., Chicago, Arlington, Texas, Indianapolis and Las Vegas. The Irish had a vacancy on their schedule since Aug. 7, when the Miami Herald reported that the Notre Dame-Miami series, originally planned for 2024 and 2025, was rescheduled for 2025 and 2026. The Hurricanes, the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson explained, accidentally scheduled five noncon- ference games for the upcoming season. They can only play four. Army finished 6-6 in 2023, but the Black Knights finished strong in their 10th season under head coach Jeff Monken. They won their final four games over then-No. 17 Air Force, Holy Cross, Coastal Carolina and Navy. Army has gone at least .500 in seven of Monken's 10 seasons at the helm in West Point, N.Y., mak- ing five bowl games and winning four. The Black Knights' most re- cent bowl win came in the 2021 Armed Forces Bowl, when they defeated Missouri 24-22. This coming season will be Ar- my's first in the American Athletic Conference. The Black Knights were previously independent. Notre Dame is 39-8 all time against Army, with the Black Knights' most recent win being a 14-2 victory in 1958. The Irish have won 15 straight in the se- ries, most recently demolishing Army 44-6 in 2016 in a Sham- rock Series game at the Alamo- dome in San Antonio. — Jack Soble 2024 NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL SCHEDULE Date Opponent Aug. 31 at Texas A&M Sept. 7 Northern Illinois Sept. 14 at Purdue Sept. 21 Miami (Ohio) Sept. 28 Louisville Oct. 5 Bye Oct. 12 Stanford Oct. 19 vs. Georgia Tech* Oct. 26 vs. Navy^ Nov. 2 Bye Nov. 9 Florida State Nov. 16 Virginia Nov. 23 vs. Army+ Nov. 30 at USC * at Mercedes Benz Stadium in Atlanta ^ at MetLife Stadium in East Ruther- ford, N.J. + Shamrock Series at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, N.Y. Per a report from The Athletic, Dan Hicks is returning to the Notre Dame Stadium booth to replace Jac Collinsworth as the Fighting Irish football play-by-play man on NBC. PHOTO COURTESY NBC SPORTS GROUP Notre Dame replaced an originally scheduled game against the Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes with a neutral site game against Army to round out the 2024 slate. The two schools last met in 2016, when the Irish beat the Black Knights 44-6 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. PHOTO BY BILL PANZICA